John Schroter told the Observer on Monday that he quickly realized the coyote could harm people and pets and that law enforcement needed to be called. He dialed 911 while still in the car.

Officers from the Charlotte-Meckenburg Police Department’s Animal Care and Control Division captured and killed the coyote and got its remains to a state testing lab in Raleigh, Schroter said he later learned.

He said he also learned of two other attacks that night, one before his family’s 10:30 p.m. encounter and one after.

Shortly before 9 p.m., a Vermillion resident reported kicking a coyote away from his small dog, Schroter said. At about midnight, a man on N.C. 115 between Ranson Road and Mount Holly-Huntersville Road posted online about a coyote running at him at about 11 p.m. The coyote was about 2 feet away before the man got into his truck and quickly closed the door. That encounter was about a mile from the Schroters’ home.

Schroter said he and his family have seen plenty of wildlife where they live. But in this case, the coyote was acting too dangerous for him not to act.